As if lawyers needed yet another fellow giving lawyers a bad name

There are any number of terrible lawyers out there. The political landscape is riddled with them. Some may actually be adequate lawyers, but they're just awful people. Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, and Josh Hawley come to mind. And, of course, there's Rudy Giuliani, who I'd say is without peer when it comes to offering bad legal advice. But then I consider his sidekicks Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, and have to ask whether there's a legal equivalent of quack doctor.

To this sordid bunch, I'm adding a newbie: John Eastman - he of the just leaked six-point memo outlining how Mike Pence should have tossed the election Trump's way. Pence's tiny little head might well have been turned if he hadn't sought the advice of fellow Hoosier, attorney Dan Quayle. (Forgive me, VP Quayle, for not having recognized that, when you were around, we had a veritable solon in our midst. Danny, we hardly knew ya...)

Then there are the lawyers - the list is too long to keep count - who get caught up in the shady business of swindling the widows and orphans they're supposed to be looking out for. 

Dewey, Cheatem & Howe! Nyuk, nyuk. 

But forget, for a moment, the malfeasant Stop the Steal brigade, the power-of-attorney-to-embezzle the bucks conmen, and focus on a new breed of Juris Grifter: the pandemic specialist.

I present to you one Thomas Renz.

At 44, Renz is a somewhat newly minted attorney. Five attempts in, he passed the bar in 2019 and set up a modest practice. Modest is my word, of course. If you look at Renz's LinkedIn profile, he's the CEO of Renz Law and Consulting, of Fremont, Ohio, and you'll see that he's:

A change agent driving constant improvement with impeccable integrity.

I'll give him the change agent designation, alright. But am I the only one left who believes that "impeccable integrity" is something that someone else says about you. It's not the sort of thing one would say about themselves. Especially if there are a few, ahem, peccadillos in his past and present.

Renz's most significant past problem was being forced out of the credit union where he worked for a few years after graduating from law school in 2011, but having failed to pass the bar until eight years later. He was forced out for sexual harassment - making crude comments, and fondling a woman's breast - which he, of course, denies. He is, after all, a self-described “God and family man.” Not to mention a change agent with impeccable integrity.

Once he put out his shingle, Renz was involved in a few cases, and then along came covid. It may have taken the lives of nearly 700,000 Americans, but for someone with an eye for the grift, covid was a giver. The pandemic for him presented quite the opportunity, and Renz has become a media darling and the head lawyer "leading federal lawsuits in six states that challenge shutdowns, mask mandates and the safety of vaccines while alleging that the danger of the virus has been overblown."

There's more to his grift than filing spurious lawsuits, however brand-building his legal work might be.

In recent months, Renz secured his own online talk show and has joined associates of Trump such as former national security adviser and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and veteran political operative Roger Stone on a national speaking tour titled “ReAwaken America.” He has made more than 100 appearances on conservative media outlets over the past year, a Post review found, including on One America News, Newsmax and Infowars.

Renz also launched a nonprofit group called For God Family Country that is collecting donations for the “medical freedom fight,” according to the website of Renz’s law firm. Renz ally Pamela Popper, the leader of an activist group called Make Americans Free Again, has said she aims to raise $100 million to support his lawsuits. (Source: Washington Post)

Ah, it's always good to see the old "God Family Country" nonprofit play. Personally, I'm okay with good God men taking the name of the Lord they God in vain. Unfortunately for Renz, his nonprofit suckered in less than $1K in its first two years. But fortunately for him, he's making $300 an hour for his legal work on behalf of anti-vaxxers. 

And don't get me going on Pamela Popper. That's Doctor Pamela Popper to you, bub. She holds her doctorate from a now-closed unaccredited correspondence school, Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, Ala. (Quack, anyone?)

As for the money to be made:

Renz wrote in an email to The Post that his law firm had been paid “around $250,000” so far for coronavirus litigation, which he said occupied most of his time over the past year. “I am certainly not making much off of this,” he added.

Not making much? This from a fellow who had previously worked at his family's six-lane rural bowling alley and who, when he decided to become a lawyer, was mired in credit card debt. 

The lawyering - all those nonsense lawsuits - is plenty awful. Then there are the incredibly destructive and outrageous claims he's making. 

In one of dozens of recent media appearances, Ohio attorney Thomas Renz was claiming that coronavirus vaccines were more harmful than the virus itself. “The people that are dying are vaccinated,” he said on a conservative online talk show in July.

I know it's doctors who are supposed to "first, do no harm," but you might think that lawyers talking medicine might heed it as well. I mean, people are dying. Lots of them. And the ones who are doing the dying are almost always unvaccinated. (Inquiring minds would like to know if Renz is vaccinated. I'm guessing yes. Guess will find out if he ends up on a ventilator.)

As Renz spoke, a message flashed across the screen with his website address. “Donate to his cause,” it urged.

Donate? But of course! Renz is, after all, part of the "Legal Eagle Dream Team" sponsored by a group called America's Frontline Doctors. All I can say is that anyone who's a patient of a doctor associated with America's Frontline Doctors has a quack for a doctor. And any one who'd take legal advice from Renz or anyone else on the "Legal Eagle Dream Team" is just plain nuts.

Renz is going all in on his anti-science crusade. What's going on, he maintains, is a crime against humanity, and any trials he's involved in are like Nuremberg. 

He has promised his supporters more legal action, declaring in one recent interview that “the suits are never going to stop” and that he was lining up his next targets.

“As God is my witness,” he said in Anaheim, “hell will freeze over before I stand down on this.”

And why would he stop? Thomas Renz has found his grift and he's sticking with it. 

As if lawyers needed yet another fellow giving lawyers a bad name.